Pat Benatar’s Real Life Love Story With Neil Giraldo To Be Made Into A Broadway Musical
Pat Benatar is headed to Broadway — or her story is, anyway. The ’80s rock superstar’s life will be the subject of a still-untitled stage musical penned by Emmy-nominated writer Gary Lennon (Orange Is the New Black). According to Deadline, the accomplishments and real life relationship of Benatar and her guitarist/husband Neil Giraldo will be the basis of the story, which will chronicle the ups and downs of the rock ‘n roll super couple.
Deadline reports that the “fast-paced” Jamie Cesa (Pippin), musical is eyeing a 2017 Broadway run and that it will be in the vein of Jersey Boys andRock of Ages.
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Pat Benatar hit it big in the early 1980s with a string of MTV-ready hits, including “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Heartbreaker,” and “Love Is a Battlefield.” The singer fell in love with Giraldo, who was her lead guitarist, and went on to marry and have two daughters, Haley and Hana, with him.
While their love story is legendary, the rock ‘n roll couple hit a few road bumps along the way. Dates on Benatar’s 35th anniversary tour had to be canceled when her husband underwent emergency surgery on his left eye last year.
Pat Benatar wed Neil “Spyder” Giraldo in Hawaii in 1982, three years after they met at a rehearsal hall where he auditioned to play on her debut album, In the Heat of the Night. In her 2010 autobiography, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, Benatar recalled the moment she met Neil.
“I thought, Girl, you have just seen the father of your children,” Pat wrote.
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In 2012, Benatar told Parade that the secret to the success of her long marriage is the fact that their careers and personal lives are completely intertwined.
“There isn’t any part of our lives that isn’t intertwined — so even when there’s a conflict, you just have to resolve it,” Pat said.
Nearly 40 years later, Pat Benatar’s rock ‘n roll fairytale is still going strong. Earlier this year, Pat told USA Today that she and her future husband penned the 1981 Top 40 hit, “Promises In the Dark,” as a way to acknowledge their love story.
“That was the first song we wrote together about our personal stuff,” Benatar revealed.
In the same interview, Giraldo said his wife had to deal with sexism early on in the music industry, but that he “would fight to the death for Patricia.” While Benatar’s husband added that “some of the best songs were ever gonna write, we haven’t written yet,” Pat added that she and Neil “are each other’s muse.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Giraldo said he and Pat are like “Johnny and June.” Indeed, the couple once paired Benatar’s hit “Heartbreaker” with Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
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The couple also dished on how they managed to have such a “normal” life together while working in the crazy music industry.
“Our best friends are laypeople,” Pat explained.
“Spyder knows a lot of musicians, but I was too busy working and raising a family. Even when we were young, we weren’t partiers. We didn’t go out, we didn’t go to awards shows. We basically just stayed with each other. It was like having twins; how when you have twins and they only play with each other.”
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Pat Benatar has even joked that the biggest piece of advice she could offer to young women in music today is to “marry your guitar player.” Good advice, especially for those who aspire to have a Broadway musical made about their life someday.
Take a look at the video below to see Pat Benatar talking about her life today with Neil Giraldo.
[Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images]
